Weekend Gettaway!

This past weekend, Bryce and I went on a fun little gettaway with some other couples from Bryce's work. Alpines owner, Chris and Michelle, invited us to their cabin over looking Bear Lake.

It was so much fun and such a beautiful cabin and setting. The leaves are now red, orange, and yellow and so the canyon and hillsides were vibrant with colors.

It was just for couples, so no kids allowed. What a nice break and a great time to be able to spend with each other. I told Bryce that we need these little adventures at least once every six months. It was just nice to be able to focus on each other.

The other awesome couples that were with us were Mike and Tami, Jacqui and Jared, Vic and Ruth, and Chris and Michelle. The first night, Chris and Michelle grilled some shish-ka-bobs. Afterwards, we watched "The Ultimate Gift" and then played kareoke till 2:30 in the morning. I haven't stayed up that late in a long time. In fact, Bryce said it reminded him of when we used to be dating. Anyway, we kind of slept in the next morning and then made pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast.

Chris and Michelle own 3 Rhino's and one four wheeler. We went on a two hour, four-wheeler ride up the canyon and through the most gorgeous ravines and trails. Everybody was so dusty and dirty, but the trees were so pretty. We drove down dusty trails, muddy ravines, and pools of water. We nearly tipped our wheelers, took out trees with the rhinos, and some of us thought others were lost.

When we got back to the cabin, some of us read books, took naps, played the Wii, or watched TV. We grilled steak and chicken that night and then sat down to some fun games around the table. We played Jenga, Catch Phrase, and MadGabs.

Highlights of the Trip

* Ruth and the "ride"

*Vic laughing so hard during Mad Gabs

*Mike and Jared's excitement for the "reward"

*Jacqui sadness for the "reward"

*Bryce being called Linus and a chicken

*Bambi standing outside the cabin listening to Tami

*Michelle yelling "I Win"

*Workin' 9 to 5

*Eating chocolate, queso, salsa, candy all day and night

*Staying up late and sleepin in

On Sunday morning, we cooked omelettes and then relaxed until it was time to leave! What an awesome vacation! Thanks Chris and Michelle and all of our husbands for their hard work for Alpine.

I wanna go home!

I have now been training for my job for 2 weeks. I only have two more weeks to go! I am ready for it to be over because 1. I miss seeing Bryce every night 2. I dont enjoy living out of a suitcase 3. It involves alot of driving 4. I am ready for a normal, regular routine!

But, I have to admit that some blessings have occurred over the past two weeks. First, and most important, is that while I was in Logan my grandma Cooper has been in the hospital. This gave me the opportunity to see her for a couple of hours, every single day. And I truly cherish those moments spent with her. Second, I have had the chance to spend some time with my sisters and to watch my neices compete in soccer and volleyball. Third, Cooper has been able to play with some of his cousins, and he has really enjoyed it.

I know that my getting this job so quickly was a blessing from my Heavenly Father. At first I was really stressed about it, but everything fell into place and has worked out perfectly. I am just thankful I could be there for my grandma. I just love her so much and I can't imagine my life without her in it. There is so much of my grandma in me and she means so much to me. Since I have moved to Utah, I have become so close to her and I feel like we take care of each other. She is an amazing person and a great example to all of us. We named Cooper after grandma and grandpa and I hope that he will always make them proud, and I hope that oneday, he will know the honor that comes from his name.

Workin' 9 till 5!!

Well, I thought I would let everyone know where I disappeared to these last couple of weeks. My brother and sister in law told me about a work-from-home job about 3 months ago. I ended up turning in my application two Thursdays ago, and later that day, I received a call saying that I was hired and was starting on the next Monday. I have to train for four weeks up in Logan before I can work from home. I train every morning from 7-11, yet gas is too expensive to drive back and forth all the time. So, I have been living with Jocelynn and Stephanie. It is a good job and it pays really well, but it will be nice when I can get back home. I verify loan applications. I am required to work 20 hours a week and half of that time, Cooper will be sleeping!

Whats crazy about these loans is that they are only $200 or $300 loans, but the interest rate is 547% so they end up paying alot in fees and interest. It's just crazy!

Labor Day Weekend

On Friday night, we went to the Douglas' to see Bruce, Hunter, Mom, and Dad. We spent the evening eating dinner and watching an old Dukes of Hazard Movie.

On Saturday, we headed up to Grandpa's Mountain to go camping for the weekend. Brandon, Jaydale, and the kids were also up there for the weekend.

Things that made this camping expedition memorable:

*First and foremost, my awesome husband fixed our heater on our trailer so that I would actually stay warm and get some sleep at night...and I actually slept almost the whole night...thanks Bryce.

*I love to watch Cooper enjoy the nature. It is safe to let him wander with his older cousins on the trails up there. He had a great time with his walking stick that we carved his name in. He loves to go exploring in the trees.

* The food was great...the food is always great when you are camping....we had cowboy beans the first night and eggs, bacon, and scones the next morning. I also made pumpkin cookies and fresh salsa...yum.

* I had a good time visiting with all the family, especially Kassie, Kylee, Maverick and Porter. I had fun watching Maverick carve in his sticks and playing frisbee with him and Cooper.

* I enjoyed sitting around the fire, roasting marshmellows and telling stories about the pioneers and listening to Brandon tell about his wild teenage years.

* Cooper getting stung by a bee right in the middle of the forehead. I put a mud mixture on it and it immediately got better. He also got hit in the forehead with a stick and it cut his head. No swelling or blood with either accident, so everything was alright.

* I always enjoy the time I get to spend with Cooper and Bryce away from the every day mundane tasks. Its also nice to get away from the TV and phones and enjoy each others company and not have other things that are distracting.

* I had been watching the weather forecast a few days before and I knew that a big storm was supposed to blow through the area. Well, it did! On Sunday afternoon it started getting dark and we decided to start preparing dinner a little early and to start taking down our trailer and putting things away. A huge wind gust came through and we had about 10 minutes to get everything put away before the hard rain came pounding down! Thanks to everybody for pitching in and helping, we got out of there as the rain started pouring. We ended up taking the dutch oven potatoes and chicken to the Douglas' to cook for dinner. The food was great and we didn't have to worry about roughing out in the storm that night. Plus, we got to sleep in warm, comfortable beds that night. Thanks mom and dad for letting us pop in all the time and sleep at your home.

On Monday, we celebrated Labor Day in Wellsville, Utah. It rained all morning but we sat in the rain so that we could see the Founders Day Parade and support my Grandma Cooper.
She was chosen to be the queen of Founders Day. She received a special award the night before and then she got to ride in the parade. She was well deserving of that honor. She has lived in Wellsville her whole life and given much service back to the community. She is an awesome person and we are so blessed to have her as our grandma.

After dinner, we ate roast and baked potatoes that were cooked in a pit down in Wellsville square. It was so good and tender. We all met up at Grandmas for lunch and to celebrate her accomplishment. Later that day, Bryce and I took Cooper to watch Kung Fu Panda. This is the second time Cooper has seen this movie and he loves it. He would not take his eyes off the movie screen and it was so cute to listen to him laugh at some of the scenes. After the movie, we headed home and got everything unpacked. We had a great Labor Day weekend. It just went by too quickly!

Bottle It Up

This summer we have been so busy that I just stopped watering my garden. So, I had tons of green tomatoes that turned red very quickly. I have been eating tomato sandwiches everyday to try to keep up with my supply.
After Labor Day weekend, I went out to my garden and picked about 30 t0matoes and 5 onions, so I decided that I would make homemade salsa. Jacqui helped me cut the onions and jalepenos up. I looked over at her and she was literally crying because of the onions. I said, " Maybe I should be cutting those since they don't affect me at all." A little too late. We made two batches and pressure cooked 12 bottles of salsa. It will be very tasty this winter!

Batter Up

The Alpine team is coming out of retirement after taking a year or two off. Our Kayville league just started a couple of weeks ago and it has been pretty fun. I play catcher because I am a wimp and scared of the ball. I also have realized that I can't hit the ball anymore. Pathetic, I know, but, what can you do!

Cooper loves to run the bases after our games are finished. He is getting faster and it is alot of fun to watch him learn to run the bases correctly. He is a good sport to come watch mom and dad play softball.

Bear Lake

Last week, we were invited to go to Bear Lake with Amy, Aaron, Jacqui, and Jared. Jared borrowed some nice wave runners and we played at the Lake all day. I was a little skeptical at first because when we came down into the valley, the temperatures were in the upper 60's. I thought there was no way the kids would like playing in the water when it was this cold.

Anyway, the kids had so much fun. They played in little pools that were warmer than the lake water. They also had fun just playing in the sand and burying each other. They also found an old boat sitting on the beach. It was a catamaran and they played on it for at least an hour. It was alot of fun to take the kids on the wave runners too. It turned out to be a great day. We all had a great time and Cooper enjoyed playing with Carson, Tanner, Reese and Jaxson!

Transformers

Cooper loves transformers right now. In fact, I have bought him quite a few of them lately. He sleeps with them every night. He watches the animated transformers every morning when he wakes up. I will catch him making transformer sounds and he pretends he is transforming. He loves to just stand there and play with them. Last night he told Bryce that he was Optimus Prime. I asked Cooper who he was. He said, "I am Megatron." I said, "Who am I?" He said, "You are a mommy." So cute.

Bryce found some old school transformer shows on YouTube so Cooper thinks those are pretty neat to watch. Also, we will be driving down the road and Cooper will see a semi truck and yell, "It's Optimus Prime." Or he will see a little yellow sports car or beetle and say, "There's bumble bee."

The only setback is that I have to transform these transformers a million times a day. And some of them are a real pain.

Cooper has to have his transformers sitting by him when he is watching the movie...same as his planet heroes and his woody and buzz light year when he is watching "Toy Story"

I have to agree with my sister in law, Jen, when she said that there are things that we swore we wouldn't do when we became mothers, but now that we are mothers, we have changed our outlooks. One of those for me is that I wasn't going let my kids wear clothes with cartoons on them. For example, Cooper's favorite sweatshirt right now, is a Spiderman sweat shirt. His favorite shirts are the ones with Lightning McQueen on them. How do you say no when they get so excited about these characters on their clothes.

Conversations with Cooper

-a month ago, we are having a sleep over at Jocelynn's and Cooper, Jaxson and Reese are laying down on the floor trying to go to sleep. I over hear this little conversation: Jaxson says, "Please don't cuddle with me, Cooper." Cooper says, "My dad lets me cuddle with him in the sleeping bag when we go camping." Jaxson says, "Ok, when we get back to my house, you can cuddle with me."

- the last couple of weeks, Cooper has been walking around the house saying "B" "o" "y"; well, Bryce told Cooper that he was spelling the word boy; so, I am sitting there with Jacqui one day and I say, "Cooper, spell boy for Jacqui." He walks up and says, "b-o-y". Her mouth dropped and she said, "how does he know how to spell that?" I had to laugh.

- we were camping this past weekend, and Cooper says, "Mom, I love grasshoppers. I want to eat them." I say, "Well, we can dip them in chocolate and they would taste better." He says, "Or maybe banilla."

- whenever I get after Cooper for something that he has done wrong, he says, "Mom, please don't be mean to me." It melts my heart.

- He is starting the whole "I winned you." The competitiveness is already starting to show. Oh no!